Buy now to get the key takeaways from Delia Owens's Where the Crawdads Sing Sample Key Takeaways: In Where the Crawdads Sing (2018), Delia Owens juxtaposes a coming of age story and a murder mystery. She reminds readers of the child that is within them, while also subjecting them to the violent yet beautiful secrets of nature. Isolation influences behavior, and Kya, the protagonist, endures much mistreatment and abandonment by her parents, siblings, lovers, school, and people in the nearby town. The story takes place in the marshlands of North Carolina, where Kya lives. Centuries before Kya's family moved there, it was populated by former slaves, criminals, and the ostracized. This affects the town's view of anyone who comes from there, and the children make fun of Kya, the "Marsh Girl" who lives within it. Yet Kya survives on her own, with little help from the outside world.